Effect of 2-Thiouracil on Cell Differentiation and Leaf Morphogenesis in Cannabis sativa

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Abstract
When supplied through the leaf at low dosage levels, the pyrimidine analogue, 2-thiouracil, progressively arrests apical growth and organogenesis in young plants of Cannabis sativa. During the treatment period, a generation of leaves arises in which cell differentiation is inhibited without a parallel reduction in laminal expansion. With the withdrawal of treatment, apical growth is resumed, but severe morphogenetic defects later become evident in leaves developing from primordia initiated during the treatment period or shortly afterwards, and there is simultaneously a loss of apical dominance and of the control of phyllotaxis. Growth of a more normal pattern is, however, gradually restored at stem apices, although local anomalies in the anatomy of the lamina recur throughout the life of the plant, and otherwise normal leaves continue to show sporadic flecks or streakings of abnormal pigmentation. The latter phenomenon suggests that the analogue induces a persistent state of instability in some of the proplastids of meristematic tissues.

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